


Restitution Resolution

by ShimmerShy



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff, Good Chara (Undertale), New Year's Eve, New Year's Fluff, New Year's Resolutions, New Years, One Shot, Short One Shot, Short Story, This is mostly just cute Asriel and Chara stuff, resolutions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-17
Updated: 2019-01-17
Packaged: 2019-10-11 14:17:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17448575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShimmerShy/pseuds/ShimmerShy
Summary: A short New Year's story about Chara and Asriel before the whole buttercup incident and all that. The story is supposed to focus on Chara and her (I'll most often refer to Chara as a girl in my stories) New Year's Resolutions. This was just for a contest on Undertale Amino.By the way, restitution is "the restoration of something lost or stolen from its proper owner". I wanted to be creative with the title, so I used a word that rhymes with resolution and also kinda has to do with the resolutions I included?The Chara art on the cover is by dietbepis on Deviantart. I just added a background and some edits in Pixlr.





	Restitution Resolution

One of my favorite things about living in the Underground is the fact that there's always something new to learn about it, which is contrary to what one would expect considering how small it is. It's so different from living on the Surface - in a good way, of course. I've been here for at least over a month, although I truthfully hadn't really been keeping track, and there are still so many places to explore. Azzy's always really excited to show them to me when Mom lets us out on our own, but I don't think think even he's seen it all.

Most recently, I've learned that monsters celebrate many of the same holidays that humans do, just usually not for the same reasons. I'd celebrated "Christmas" with the Dreemurrs about a week ago, except it's mostly referred to as Gyftmas down here. It originated in Snowdin as a tradition of leaving gifts under a decorated tree for the poor Gyftrot that the teens often messed with, but the tradition eventually spread to the rest of the Underground for some reason that I didn't pay attention to.

I reached up to touch the cool metal of the golden heart locket around my neck, lightly pressing my fingers into the words "Best Friends Forever" that were engraved on it, and smiled. It had been Asriel's Gyftmas gift to me, and he had one matched. (I'd teased him about the fact that he'd basically gotten a gift for himself, which had made him pretty flustered. And it was kinda cute if I'm being honest.) I don't think either of us had taken ours off since we'd gotten them; it was perhaps the most valuable gift I'd ever gotten.

I jumped as a light object was placed atop my head, startling me from my thoughts. Asriel giggled at my surprise as he settled back into his sitting position on the floor in front of me, and my hand flew to the cardboard, cone party hat that I was now wearing.

It was the last day of the year, the last few minutes of New Year's Eve creeping by. Mom, Dad, Asriel, and I were gathered in the living room together, playing games and really just spending time with each other in anticipation of the new year. A plate with a half-eaten cinnamon-butterscotch pie, Mom's specialty, sat beside me on the warmly-colored rug in front of the pleasantly warm fireplace. The pie on my brother's plate had already been reduced to crumbs.

"Chara, you spaced out again," Asriel said, picking his Uno cards back up with a smile on his face.

"Oh, whoops. Sorry, Az," I reply as I look down at my own cards in my hand. "Was it my turn?"

He nodded with a quick, "Mhm."

Mom and Dad had played a few rounds with us after Mom had served the pie, but she'd gone back into the kitchen afterwards to clean up, and Dad was taking a break from the game. It had turned into more of a mild competition between me and Asriel than just a game by now.

A grin spread onto my face as I flicked a Wild Draw Four card onto the short stack between us. More than half of my cards were Wild cards or Draw cards, and it wasn't because I was cheating for once.

Maybe I was cheating just a little bit, actually.

Asriel frowned and raised his eyebrows. "What? How many of those do you have?!"

"I'm not telling," I said, trying to hold back giggles as he, reluctantly, pulled four cards from the top of the other stack.

"What color?"

"Red." I place a red Draw Two card on the stack.

"Chara!" Asriel's eyes flashed up to meet mine angrily, and I burst into laughter. "You're cheating again!"

"I-I am not!" I tried to say through my laughter.

"Show me your other cards!"

"No way! Hey!" He started to crawl in my direction, trying to get a look at my cards, but I hugged them to my chest. "Noooo, stop!"

"Chara!" he cried again and started to laugh, too, pulling on my arm. "Come on, you always do this!"

"Well maybe you're just no good at it!"

"Children!" Toriel's voice rang out from the kitchen. "Play nice."

Asriel, still giggling, backed away from me and said, "Maybe we should play something else now."

"Like what?" I glanced up at the wall clock. "There are only a few more minutes."

"Ummm...Oh! We could do resolutions! You said that lots of humans where you lived did New Year's resolutions."

My gaze shifted to the side uncomfortably. "Yeah..." I'd actually been putting some thought into my New Year's resolutions earlier that dayand even earlier that evening. Normally,  I didn't do resolutions; they seemed like a pointless way of making more stupid promises that no one was going to keep anyway. Just because it was a new year didn't mean that you were a new person or any more faithful than you'd been before. And besides, I had never really had a reason to make any resolutions...until now, I guess. Although I was unsure whether or not I felt comfortable sharing my resolutions with my brother.

"I mean," Asriel continued, "we could do it just for fun. They don't have to be life-changing or anything; it could be...that I want to learn how to make pie as awesome as Mom's!"

I grinned at his enthusiasm and nodded. "That's a good one."

"And I want to be as good of a gardener as Dad."

"Another great choice ."

"And I alsooo..." He held out the last word suspensefully with a mischievous little grin. "...want to be an awesome brother just like you!" With that, I nearly fell over as he tackled me into a hug.

"Well, sister in your case," he added with a giggle.

My eyes widened in surprise at the gesture, but I eventually hugged him back, feeling a slight tug on my heart as I said, "Awe, thanks, Azzy. But that's kind of a silly resolution to make because you're already the best brother ever! And I'm not much of a role model, either."

I never liked it when he idolized me this way because I knew perfectly well that I was by no means someone to be idolized. If anything, I didn't deserve him, nor did I deserve Mom and Dad. 

Asriel pulled away. "Sure you are; you're my best friend!"

"Hey, can't you just accept the compliment?" I asked with crossed arms as my gaze darted to the side.

"Oh, um, I'm sorry," he replied. There's a worried expression on his face, but he's smiling again in a second. "Do you have any New Year's resolutions, Chara?"

I hesitated. "No."

"Surely there's something you want to accomplish this year." He stared at the rug for a moment. "Didn't you say that you wanted to learn how to use magic?"

"Yeah, but I thought that was just a monster thing," I mumbled.

"I bet you could still learn how to do it somehow," Asriel replied excitedly. "You could start with that as your first resolution."

I nodded slowly. "Alright. So I want to learn how to use magic this year." It was a good starting point, and it felt easier now to continue sharing my resolutions.

"I also want to try to be more open with my feelings...and more honest. I guess it's not really fair that I keep so many secrets from you guys." For the most part, I was referring to the fact that I still hadn't told my new family much about my old life on the surface. I was intending on telling them at some point, but I just hadn't found the right time yet.

"I want to be more understanding, too. And patient." These were two traits that I knew I didn't quite have, to be honest. 

"And this one's a little bit generalized, but I want to be a better person. Like you said, I want to be a better sister." I smiled at Asriel after saying this. His head was tilted slightly to the side, and there was a curious expression on his face as he listened.

I wasn't entirely sure if I should tell him of the last thing on my list. I didn't know if it was even possible, and it seemed a little bit too serious to be a resolution when we were doing this just for fun.

I opened my mouth to speak, but I was cut off by Mom's voice as she entered the room from the kitchen. I noticed that Dad had also returned to the living room. "Oh, my! There's less than a minute left of the year!"

Our attention turned quickly to the wall clock, which read 11:59 as the long hand tick-tocked past the six. Asriel gasped and started counting down at twenty. Momentarily forgetting about the resolutions, I joined in, and the last second of the year disappeared. The four of us cheered "Happy New Year!" and I grabbed the basket of confetti that I'd hidden behind Mom's chair, throwing it high into the air to rain down around the room along with the laughter and excitement. I was lost in the moment and overjoyed by the feeling of belonging that surrounded me.

After the excitement died down and Mom had told us that it was time to get ready for bed, Asriel and I sat on our beds in our room. He turned to me with a slightly tired-looking smile on his face. "You had some really good resolutions, by the way," he said. "I told you it was easy."

"There was actually one more," I told him, feeling determination rise inside me as I thought about it some more. "Probably the most important one."

"Hm?" He tilted his head and waited for me to continue. I smiled.

_"I'm going to set everyone free."_


End file.
